The Lawyer in Dickens by Franziska Quabeck

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Lawyer in Dickens by Franziska Quabeck Robert Sirabian (bio) Franziska Quabeck. The Lawyer in Dickens. Walter de Gruyter, 2021. Pp. 145. $107.99. ISBN 978-3-11-075270-0 (hb). Explaining in the Afterword that she is not writing a history of prejudice against lawyers or a cultural history of lawyers and the law, Franziska Quabeck explores lawyer characters in later Dickens novels from David Copperfield to Our Mutual Friend while speculating about the lawyer in Dickens himself. Although lawyer characters may seem minor, and therefore flat, "representatives of an evil system" (12), Quabeck argues they are more than symbolic representations motivated by greed. They reveal complex human desires that the legal system fosters, specifically an interest in fabricating plots and asserting masculine power through surveillance, particularly over women. These desires become manifest as they break away from Dickens's authorial control, revealing his complex, ambiguous relationship to the law. Although additional context concerning legal history and Victorian culture would be helpful, and an extended discussion of some Dickensian literary criticism would situate the argument more poignantly, The Lawyer in Dickens offers interesting, relevant insights and conclusions. Quabeck's analysis helps readers think further about the important relationship between Dickens and his lawyer characters, and that although rooted in cultural prejudice, Victorian antipathy towards the law reflects the tension between "English law as a set of cultural and linguistic practices" and natural law–an individual, intuitive sense of what is morally and ethically right and wrong (Petch 155). The introductory chapter on the law highlights Dickens's interest in the lawyer as an individual, not just a member of the legal system. According to Quabeck, Dickens offers a "possibly idiosyncratic preference for the solicitor over the barrister" (5), rooted in issues of social class (e.g., being a gentleman) and money, since solicitors were viewed as having a higher social rank. Furthermore, because Dickens has a mixed, conflicted appraisal of lawyers, his lawyer characters can elude the author's conscious control. Lawyers in later novels depart from those in early novels by revealing motivations transcending the law as simply an oppressive system. However, it should be noted that even in The Pickwick Papers, which Quabeck briefly discusses, Dickens presents a complex understanding of the law, specifically the tedium of its daily business transactions and most significantly its [End Page 108] adversarial nature, outlined in Thomas Langbein's The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial, a source that could be included here. He traces the route, stemming from civil trials, that allowed "lawyer-partisans" to run criminal trials, turning them into competitive contests with lawyers speaking for defendants rather than juries hearing directly from them (1). In Pickwick, minor lawyer characters show an acute understanding of the legal system's customs and written rules as well as an awareness of juries as spectators, which shapes Dickens's depiction of lawyers and judges as actors. This context frames Quabeck's numerous passing references to competition and contests: between Uriah and David, Stryver and Carton, Pip and Jaggers, as well as Tulkinghorn's game with Lady Dedlock. Lawyers in Dickens's novels understand the adversarial nature of the legal system, structured on the cultural ideology of game playing as morality and ethics are framed by the ideology of competition beyond the courtroom into domestic spaces and daily business encounters. Chapter 2 makes the engaging claim that Uriah Heep is a prototype of other Dickens lawyers. Quabeck posits that "[o]n the grounds of David Copperfield, it is […] not unequivocally possible to attest that Dickens 'detests' lawyers–in fact, there seems to be a great degree of that often mentioned attraction of repulsion, a covert admiration for the profession and a strong awareness for the social implications of what it means to be a lawyer" (37). Because Heep is David's rival, the law is also David's "nemesis" (from the chapter title), although David does not realize it. The law is the source of Heep's status and power, particularly his surveillance of and (sexual) desire to control and possess Agnes, which allows his character to transcend its seeming flatness. Readers might be reminded, however, that Heep's charity school education...